Independent Studies
The English Department encourages students to engage in individualized study. With the approval of the department chair and permission of a professor who will help direct the study, the student designs an in-depth look at a topic in literature, language, or critical theory, leading to a substantial paper, series of essays, or creative project. Below is a list of a few recent independent studies:
- "The Misogynistic Tradition: A Female Voice Responds: A Comparison of Women's Lives as Represented by Boccaccio, Chaucer and Christine de Pizan."
- "Communications and Manuel De Landa's 1000 Years of Nonlinear History."
- "Studies in Twentieth Century Latin American Fiction: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Juan Rulfo, Clarice Lispector, Isabel Allende & Luisa Valenzuela."
- "Sampling Soseki."
- "Tim O'Brian and Truth."
- "Man and the Machine: Images of Artificial Intelligence in Stanley Kubrick Films."
- "The Bible as Literature."
- "Understanding O'Neill's Guilt."
- "Celtic Myth and Christian Beliefs in Contemporary Irish Literature"
- "19th Century Russian Literature"
- "Modern Russia: Peter the Great to Pushkin"
- "Comparisons between the Southern Grotesque and Contemporary Dystopian Literature"
- "American 1920s Expatriate Literature"
- "Contemporary Japanese Literature"
- "Health and Fitness Journalism"
- "Effect of Social Media on Social Movements"
- "Sexual Transitions in the Long 18th Century"
- "Fictional Bodies, Textual Selves: A Crisis of Control in the 19th Century Novel"
- "Write Drunk, Edit Sober: Creating a Book of Poetry"

Cleaveland '13 receives award for paper presented at Madrush Conference
Communication studies major Wil Cleaveland was recognized with an award for his paper analyzing TV news coverage of third party candidates.




